Amazon Prime Video unveils spooky trailer, premiere date for terror anthology series Them
Nothing is as it seems in the new teaser trailer for Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming terror anthology series, Them, which hails from creator Little Marvin and producer Lena Waithe. Season one centers on a Black family who move to an all-white neighborhood in 1950s Los Angeles.
Set against Dusty Springfield’s eerily perfect cover of “The Windmills Of Your Mind,” the trailer checks in with Henry and Lucky Emory (Ashley Thomas and Deborah Ayorinde), who are all smiles as they move with their young daughters from North Carolina to an all-white neighborhood in Los Angeles during the Great Migration of 1953. As they start settling in, their idyllic home is threatened by malevolent forces, both supernatural and more earthly (i.e., their neighbors).
Series creator Little Marvin said during the trailer launch that he started writing the show a few summers back after waking up to similar headlines of Black people being terrorized in public places. Through this show, he wanted to explore what it’s like when even a safe space isn’t one anymore. “Nothing is a more quintessential part of the American dream than home ownership. It’s a point of pride for Black folks to create and pass down intergenerational wealth. For this family, it has been anything but a dream. It’s been a nightmare, and I wanted to peel back the floorboards to interrogate that,” he said.
Them is being dubbed as a terror series and not horror, despite possible otherworldly elements being folded into the stories. According to Little Marvin, it’s because very few people experience supernatural horror but there are degrees of terror everyone experiences. “What terrifies you more? The sound down in basement or a neighbor who has been constantly staring at your house? In my experience, it’s that neighbor. The terror here roots the horrors in something deeply human.”
Them also stars Alison Pill, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Melody Hurd, and Ryan Kwanten. It will premiere on April 9.